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DATE
Wednesday, April 29, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET
CALL PARTICIPANTS
- Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer — Christopher Pappas
- Chief Financial Officer — James Leddy
TAKEAWAYS
- Net Sales -- $1.059 billion, up 11.4% year over year, including approximately 10.4% organic sales growth, and 1% contribution from acquisitions.
- Organic Specialty Sales -- Increased 6.8%, primarily driven by 6.2% unique placement growth, 5.7% specialty case growth, and price inflation.
- Unique Customer Growth -- 1.9% increase; excluding Texas noncore attrition, year-over-year growth was approximately 4.3%.
- Center-of-the-Plate Volume -- Up approximately 6.2% year over year.
- Gross Profit -- $257.4 million, a 13.9% increase, with gross profit margin up 53 basis points to 24.3%.
- Segment Gross Margins -- Specialty category gross margin rose by 43 basis points; center-of-the-plate gross margin increased by 110 basis points.
- Net Inflation -- 4.1% overall: 1.5% in specialty, and 8.2% in center-of-the-plate category.
- Operating Income -- $33.1 million versus $22.7 million, primarily driven by higher gross profit, partially offset by increased SG&A expenses.
- GAAP Net Income -- $17.4 million, or $0.40 per diluted share, compared to $10.3 million, or $0.25 per diluted share.
- Adjusted EBITDA -- $60.1 million, up from $47.5 million; adjusted net income was $17.2 million, or $0.40 per diluted share.
- Total Liquidity -- $278.3 million, composed of $122.7 million in cash, and $155.6 million ABL availability.
- Net Debt and Leverage -- $522 million net debt, with net debt to adjusted EBITDA at approximately 1.9x at quarter-end.
- Share Repurchase and Debt Payments -- $10 million in share repurchases, and $5 million in term loan prepayments completed during the quarter.
- Full-Year 2026 Guidance -- Net sales forecast $4.35-$4.45 billion, gross profit expected $1.053-$1.076 billion, adjusted EBITDA projected $276-$286 million; fully diluted share count estimated at 46-46.7 million, convertible notes maturing in 2028 expected to be dilutive.
- Middle East Exposure -- Operations in region represent less than 10% of overall business, and are currently operating at about 75% of prior-year levels due to regional instability; primary impact is from low hotel and resort occupancy.
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RISKS
- James Leddy stated, "situation in the Middle East currently remains uncertain, we have run multiple scenarios of performance and factored in a range of possibilities as it relates to our forward guidance. At this time, we are keeping our full year guidance unchanged with the potential for upward revision should the situation in the region normalize," highlighting ongoing risk related to Middle East operations.
- Middle East business growth reduced overall organic growth by approximately 50 basis points; recent weeks have seen operations at approximately 75% of prior-year volumes, with demand variability persisting.
SUMMARY
The Chefs' Warehouse (CHEF +1.11%) reported double-digit revenue growth, notable margin expansion, and stated its North American business is outperforming internal expectations. Management confirmed regional instability in the Middle East has reduced growth from that geography, yet emphasized overall results were strong enough to maintain full-year guidance unchanged. Liquidity increased further, with disciplined capital deployment balancing share repurchases, debt repayment, and readiness for strategic acquisitions. Rapid growth in several U.S. markets, especially Florida and Texas, was cited as a driver of increased route profitability, with densification and new facilities contributing across regions.
- James Leddy indicated that, "over 90% of our business is more than making up for the minimal impact that we're seeing so far from the Middle East."
- Christopher Pappas stated, "I think, Kelly, we've been kind of consistent with our observations that all our markets are growing. And I think the obvious are growing even faster, new markets like Florida, which, still, we're pretty -- we're not new here, but we built our new facility. I think it's 3 years ago, and that has been over 20-plus percent growth, and we expect that to continue for many years to come as we continue to add salespeople and expand throughout all of Florida and become more of a specialty broadliner," underscoring significant contribution from major new regions.
- Company leadership described current EBITDA margin as "exceptionally high and much higher than what we were modeling, highest on record."
- Recent investments in training, technology, and infrastructure were directly credited as supporting both margin improvement and regional expansion.
- Guidance may be revised upward "should the situation in the region normalize," signaling management's view that current performance could trend higher if current headwinds lessen.
INDUSTRY GLOSSARY
- Center-of-the-Plate: Protein and premium food categories—such as beef, seafood, and poultry—that typically form the main item on a restaurant plate, and are a key margin driver in food distribution.
- ABL Facility: Asset-based lending facility, a line of credit secured by company assets such as inventory or receivables, used for liquidity management.
- Unique Placement: Distinct locations or accounts where the company's specialty products are newly introduced or expanded during the period.
Full Conference Call Transcript
Chris Pappas, Founder, Chairman, and CEO; and Jim Leddy, our CFO. By now, you should have access to our first quarter 2026 earnings press release. It can also be found at www.chefswarehouse.com under the Investor Relations section. Throughout this conference call, we will be presenting non-GAAP financial measures, including, among others, historical and estimated EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA as well as historical adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share, adjusted operating expenses, adjusted operating expenses as a percentage of net sales and as a percentage of gross profit, net debt, net debt leverage and free cash flow.
These measures are not calculated in accordance with GAAP and may be calculated differently in similarly titled non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. Quantitative reconciliations of our non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures appear in today's press release and first quarter 2026 earnings presentation. Before we begin our formal remarks, I need to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our estimated financial performance. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore, you should not put undue reliance on them. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from what we expect.
Some of these risks are mentioned in today's release. Others are discussed in our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, which are available on the SEC website. Today, we are going to provide a business update and go over our first quarter results in detail. For a portion of our discussion this morning, we will refer to a few slides posted on the Chefs' Warehouse website under the Investor Relations section titled First Quarter 2026 Earnings Presentation. Please note that these slides are disclosed at this time for illustration purposes only. Then we will open up the call for questions. With that, I will turn the call over to Chris Pappas. Chris?
Christopher Pappas: Thank you, Alex, and thank you all for joining our first quarter 2026 earnings call. First quarter 2026 business activity displayed typical seasonal cadence as revenue trends coming out of January increased steadily into February and March. Despite some volatility in business due to extreme weather events and the start of the conflict in the Middle East later in the quarter -- our team's exceptional execution and the strength of our North American business allowed us to continue to grow market share, delivering strong year-over-year growth in volume, product penetration, unique customer growth, revenue growth and profitability growth. Momentum continued into April, and we currently expect double-digit top line growth to start the second quarter.
Regarding the current situation in the Middle East, our teams and operations in the region, the immediate focus has been the safety and security of our people. We have followed safety protocols instituted by governing bodies and are effectively navigating volatility in supply chains and customer demand. Our leadership and team members have done an amazing job managing both personally and professionally through the volatility and uncertainty and we hope for a resolution to the conflict soon. Jim will provide more color on the financial impact in a few moments. I would like to thank all of the Chefs' Warehouse from sales and operations to all the supporting functions for delivering a great start to 2026.
Our regional leadership and their teams continue to execute our strategy to leverage our investments and train the next generation of sales and operational talent. They are accelerating our long-term plan as they grow deeper understanding of our customer base and become the ultimate specialty ingredient professionals, marrying technology with industry know-how to become trusted advisers to the best chefs in the world. With that, please refer to Slide 3 of the presentation. A few highlights from the first quarter include organic net sales grew 10.4%. Organic specialty sales were up 6.8% over the prior year, which was driven primarily by unique placement growth of 6.2%, specialty case growth of 5.7% and price inflation. Unique customers grew 1.9% year-over-year.
Reported unique customer growth was impacted by the attrition related to our transition out of noncore customer business in Texas. We fully lapped this impact starting in the second quarter this year. Excluding this impact, first quarter year-over-year unique customer growth was approximately 4.3%. Pounds in center-of-the-plate were approximately 6.2% higher than the prior year first quarter. Gross profit margins increased approximately 53 basis points. Gross margin in the specialty category increased approximately 43 basis points as compared to the first quarter of 2025, while gross margin in the center-of-the-plate category increased approximately 110 basis points year-over-year. Jim will provide more detail on gross profit and margins in a few moments.
For an update on certain of our operating metrics, including continued improvement in year-over-year gross profit per route and adjusted EBITDA per employee, please refer to the slide provided in the appendix of our first quarter 2026 earnings presentation. With that, I'll turn it over to Jim to discuss more detailed financial information for the quarter and an update on our liquidity. Jim?
James Leddy: Thank you, Chris, and good morning, everyone. I'll now provide a comparison of our current quarter operating results versus the prior year quarter and provide an update on our balance sheet and liquidity. Please refer to Slide 4. Our net sales for the quarter ended March 27, 2026, increased approximately 11.4% to $1.059 billion from $950.7 million in the first quarter of 2025. The growth in net sales was a result of an increase in organic sales of approximately 10.4% as well as the contribution of sales from acquisitions, which added approximately 1% to sales growth for the quarter.
Given the start of the conflict in Iran occurred in the last month of the first quarter, the impact to our first quarter aggregate year-over-year revenue growth was not material. We estimate it reduced overall organic growth by approximately 50 basis points. Prior to the start of the conflict, our Middle East business grew approximately 11% in January and February versus the prior year. While there remains variability in demand and customer buying patterns week-to-week, these past few weeks, our business located in the region has been operating at approximately 75% of prior year. The primary impact has come from low occupancy in hotels and resorts.
Our operations in Qatar and Oman are performing much closer to plan than prior year as they are less reliant on tourism than Dubai and Abu Dhabi. As I just discussed, our North American operations, which represent over 90% of the Chefs' Warehouse continues to grow well above our guidance while generating operating leverage and compelling year-over-year adjusted EBITDA growth. As the situation in the Middle East currently remains uncertain, we have run multiple scenarios of performance and factored in a range of possibilities as it relates to our forward guidance. At this time, we are keeping our full year guidance unchanged with the potential for upward revision should the situation in the region normalize.
Net inflation was 4.1% in the first quarter, consisting of 1.5% inflation in our specialty category and 8.2% inflation in our center-of-the-plate category versus the prior year quarter. Center-of-the-plate inflation when adjusted for the impact of the Texas attrition was approximately 4.5% versus the prior year quarter. Gross profit increased 13.9% to $257.4 million for the first quarter of 2026 versus $226 million for the first quarter of 2025. Gross profit margins increased approximately 53 basis points to 24.3%. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased approximately 10.5% to $224.1 million for the first quarter of 2026 from $202.8 million for the first quarter of 2025.
The increase was primarily due to higher costs associated with compensation and benefits to support sales growth, higher depreciation driven by facility and fleet investments and higher self-insurance-related costs. Adjusted operating expenses increased 10.5% versus the prior year first quarter. And as a percentage of net sales, adjusted operating expenses were 18.6% for the first quarter of 2026. Operating income for the first quarter of 2026 was $33.1 million compared to $22.7 million for the first quarter of 2025. The increase in operating income was driven primarily by higher gross profit, partially offset by higher selling, general and administrative expenses.
Our GAAP net income was $17.4 million or $0.40 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2026 compared to net income of $10.3 million or $0.25 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2025. On a non-GAAP basis, we had adjusted EBITDA of $60.1 million for the first quarter of 2026 compared to $47.5 million for the prior year first quarter. Adjusted net income was $17.2 million or $0.40 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2026 compared to $10.2 million or $0.25 per diluted share for the prior year first quarter. Turning to the balance sheet and an update on our liquidity. Please refer to Slide 5.
At the end of the first quarter, we had total liquidity of $278.3 million, comprised of $122.7 million in cash and $155.6 million of availability under our ABL facility. During the first quarter, we made prepayments of $5 million on our term loan maturing in 2029 and purchased $10 million equivalent shares under our share repurchase program. As of March 27, 2026, total net debt was approximately $522 million, inclusive of all cash and cash equivalents, and net debt to adjusted EBITDA was approximately 1.9x.
As noted earlier, we maintain our previously provided full year guidance for 2026 as follows: we estimate that net sales for the full year 2026 will be in the range of $4.35 billion to $4.45 billion, gross profit to be between $1.053 billion and $1.076 billion and adjusted EBITDA to be between $276 million and $286 million. Please note, for the full year 2026, we expect the convertible notes maturing in 2028 to be dilutive, and therefore, we expect the fully diluted share count to be between approximately 46 million and 46.7 million shares. Thank you. And at this point, we'll open it up to questions. Operator?
Operator: [Operator Instructions] The first question is from Alex Slagle from Jefferies.
Alexander Slagle: Yes. I know, like, the Middle East is always -- it's hard for us to figure out everything that's going on. So I appreciate everything you provided. I guess, kind of, curious on -- you gave some color on the top line. What else can you tell us about sort of the profitability implications for the Middle East business specifically and kind of what's baked into the outlook, I guess, sizing it up, also, I guess, it sounds like the top line is less than 10%. And I'm not sure on the EBITDA side, if you could provide some color.
James Leddy: Yes. We don't necessarily disclose the percent of EBITDA that they contribute. But just to go back to what we said, it's less than 10% of our overall business. It's a very profitable company. We've made some pretty significant investments, and we feel really good about the medium- to long-term prospects of the market and our business there. Obviously, there's a little bit of a short-term bump in the road right now. But as I mentioned in our prepared remarks, we haven't adjusted our top line or our adjusted EBITDA guidance as a result. So like I said, we've modeled in a bunch of different scenarios.
We generally don't change guidance after the first quarter, but the first quarter was so strong and the trends are continuing that, obviously, if the Middle East thing wasn't happening, I believe we would have adjusted our guidance this quarter. But I think given the uncertainty, we're just going to wait a little longer and see how things play out.
Alexander Slagle: Okay. In terms of the scenario, it sort of assume recent trends continue through the rest of the year or several months? Or what's the kind of rough time frame?
James Leddy: I'm sorry. Basically, we would adjust guidance as things materialize. But I think the key point that we made in our prepared remarks was that over 90% of our business is more than making up for the minimal impact that we're seeing so far from the Middle East.
Alexander Slagle: Okay. And just a second question on expectations for the summer and maybe potential for more domestic travel. I don't know maybe that will be a positive tailwind for Chefs' and sort of how you're looking at that important time period as we get up to the -- some of the celebration holidays and then the travel.
Christopher Pappas: I mean, Alex, I mean, it looks really strong. Again, I mean, we didn't really see the war coming, but things start settling down in the Middle East. I mean, the -- I think all our investments for the last 15 years are starting to bear fruit, and we're getting that acceleration of sales and leverage with the massive investments we've made to build this thing and a little up or down with travel or more people going out, but we just see a very, very strong field ahead of us.
And I think we're taking market share, and we're just continuing to mature as obviously the small public company in foodservice, dominating, really, the good, better, best part of it. So we don't see a slowdown.
Operator: The next question is from Mark Carden from UBS.
Mark Carden: To start, just another follow-up on the Middle East. Glad to hear your team is holding up okay out there. For the 75% number, it sounds like that's stabilized over the course of the past few weeks. Is that correct? And then just as you think about the course of March, that build in a meaningful acceleration post-ceasefire?
James Leddy: Yes. I think the best way to put it, Mark, is, yes, we mentioned that the last few weeks, our business has been trending at about 75% of prior year. We've factored that into multiple scenarios going forward, different levels of percentage should the bombing start to re-escalate and they're sending drones into Dubai. We understand that there might be a downward impact. There could be an upward impact if things settle down. So I think we've modeled that in and decided to leave the guidance unchanged. That's probably the best way to think about it.
Mark Carden: Got it. That's helpful. And then any shifts to how you're thinking about inflation over the course of the next few quarters just on the back of some of the recent commodity price fluctuations and then, of course, changes in the price of oil?
James Leddy: No. I think our teams have done an incredible job really the last couple of years, but especially with our team maturing and the collaboration between our sales and operations, procurement and pricing, the work that we've done with our diverse portfolio of suppliers. And as Chris mentioned, a lot of that is just that maturity and training and experience is all coming to fruition. And they've become very good at managing through inflationary and deflationary environments. And I'll just go back to the diversity of our product portfolio.
When you have 90,000 products flowing through your distribution centers for a company our size and our customer base that demands quality and diversity of product sourced from all around the world, you've become very good at managing through dairy is deflationary year-over-year. But sequentially, the prices in dairy and eggs and other dairy products have been within a range that's very manageable that you can provide your customer with high-quality products at a good value and still manage the gross profit dollars to what we need to meet our targets.
So I think it's just -- I'll go back to what Chris said, the investments that we've made in talent, systems, technology and infrastructure are all continuing to pay off and allowing us to manage through those type of price environments.
Operator: The next question is from Kelly Bania from BMO Capital Markets.
Kelly Bania: Just to follow up a little bit on the CME business, if I'm just doing the math right here, you said it was a 50 basis point drag on top line for Q1. And if I'm doing the math right, I think it's around a 200 to 300 basis point drag into April so far. But for your sales to be tracking at double digit, I'm not sure if they've accelerated or stayed kind of steady in total. Obviously, your North American businesses is kind of more than offsetting that. Just can you just clarify that math for us? Just trying to make sure we're thinking about that right so far.
James Leddy: Thanks, Kelly. Yes, look, I think we're growing well above our guidance and actually double digits with the impact of -- in the first quarter, both the 2 storm events as well as the 1-month impact of the Middle East. Those 3 things combined cost us about 150 basis points on the quarter. So if you look at our organic growth at 10.5%, you have the 1% ramp of mainly Italco. You could add 150 basis points to that if we didn't have those 3 events in the quarter. So I don't know where you got to 200 or 300 basis points that's not what is happening right now.
I think about it, if they continue to operate at 75% as we mentioned in April, we're still growing double digits with the impact of the Middle East. Obviously, we didn't have any storms that hit us in April. But so I think you can just get from that, that our North American business is so strong. The team is executing at a very high level. I think you look at the Amex data that comes out, the high-end consumer is still spending. So what's happening in the Middle East, we're overcoming. But obviously, we're hoping that the conflict is resolved soon and they can get back to some sort of normality.
Kelly Bania: Okay. Very helpful, Jim. Can you also just elaborate a little bit more color on kind of your different markets, your more mature markets and then some of the earlier stage growth markets? And if anything is changing on how they're contributing to the really strong North America top line, whether it be Florida or Texas or New York or California? Just any color on kind of how that split is contributing to the strong North America growth?
Christopher Pappas: Yes. I think, Kelly, we've been kind of consistent with our observations that all our markets are growing. And I think the obvious are growing even faster, new markets like Florida, which, still, we're pretty -- we're not new here, but we built our new facility. I think it's 3 years ago, and that has been over 20-plus percent growth, and we expect that to continue for many years to come as we continue to add salespeople and expand throughout all of Florida and become more of a specialty broadliner. It will start to mimic our classic business, which is New York. And the West Coast continues to mature towards that New York model.
We still think that it's going to double even though we're getting to a pretty good size out there. Texas, we think, is going to be a top 3 that's starting to have great growth and becoming more of a Chef Warehouse, the same in New England. So the smaller markets, even though they can grow 20%, 30%, 40% a year, they're still smaller markets. And the big markets are still going to drive our march towards our next goal is $10 billion. And we see a lot of that coming from the major, major markets, Texas, California, all of New York, New England, Florida, where the density of, obviously, the populations are.
Kelly Bania: Very helpful. And can I just add one more on just the gross margin. You touched on it a little bit, but I guess, the center of plate margin seemed quite strong in light of the magnitude of inflation. Maybe you can just help us understand what drove that, how you're thinking about that going forward? And just inflation overall, how your customers are handling that? It sounds like the sales force is managing that very well, but just any color that you're getting from your customers?
James Leddy: Yes. Look, I don't think -- I'll just go back to what I said to an earlier question that the diversity of our product portfolio, the expertise of -- and maturity of our teams that are collaborating to manage through that. They've done an amazing job. I mean center-of-the plate year-over-year had some inflationary. But during the first quarter, the sequential changes in prices are actually deflationary coming out of December into January, February and March. It's just a seasonal impact that happens every year. So that played out and is actually a little more pronounced. So I think the improvement in margin was really our teams really managing very effectively through that environment, through that sequential pricing environment.
And it's just a testament to how they've been managing their business.
Christopher Pappas: Yes. And Kelly, it's a little confusing just to look at margin. You get some deflation. We expect margin to go up just because of the volatility. Usually when prices really shoot up, we're managing towards gross profit dollars versus margin because really, our basic overhead is kind of fixed. So it's really the gross profit dollars we take to the bank. And the mix starts to change. And this is why the way the protein team manages again, is towards figuring out how they can hit the gross profit dollars they need to run their businesses and the profitability that we need.
So it gets a little fuzzy because the mix starts to change a lot when you have a lot of inflation. We always say people start to eat more premium hamburgers than steaks, maybe at the non-steakhouse kind of dining out, you sell more chicken, you sell more sausage. So it's a big mix of products. But again, the demand for the premium products that we sell, even to -- I don't want to say to my surprise, but it kind of plays into what we're seeing with the higher-end consumers are not going to not order a great steak because it's $5 more. So I've always thought that, that consumer base, I think it's my 41st year.
I have not seen that trend change, right? So gas prices going up $0.30, $0.40, $0.50 a gallon doesn't change a lot of that behavior. And I think we're just consistently seeing that.
Operator: The next question is from Peter Saleh from BTIG.
Peter Saleh: Great. Congrats on a great quarter. I did want to come back to the conversation around margin. Your EBITDA margin this quarter was exceptionally high and much higher than what we were modeling, highest on record. Just I know you guys have talked about maybe 20 basis points or so of EBITDA margin expansion every year. But if you flow through these numbers to the year, you kind of get there without any more expansion. Just can you help us out a little bit in terms of -- do you think that 20 basis point number is kind of still the good number going forward?
Or have we hit kind of an inflection point where we should start to see a little bit more EBITDA margin flow through to the bottom line?
James Leddy: Yes. Thanks for the question, Peter. Yes, look, I'll go back to what I said. If we didn't have the uncertainty in the Middle East right now, I think we would -- we usually don't this early in the year, update our guidance, but I think we would have. If we had some sort of certainty around what's going to happen in the Middle East. Once again, it's less than 10% of our business, but we don't know how it could play out the rest of the year. If it stays where it is or gets better, I would imagine we would be adjusting up.
And '25 over '24, we delivered more than 20 or 25 basis points of EBITDA margin improvement. And I think to what Chris mentioned earlier, we're really starting to see the operating leverage from all the investments that we've made. So there's certainly a really strong possibility that we will -- we can deliver more. It's just early in the year and the uncertainty around the Middle East is preventing us from adjusting that up right now.
Peter Saleh: Yes. And then can I just ask on the capital structure and share repurchase? You guys repurchased $10 million in the first quarter. Your leverage is just naturally delevering. Should we expect more share repurchase as we go through the year? I mean, how do we think about that for the balance of '26?
James Leddy: Yes. I think we haven't really changed our outlook. We want to remain with some dry powder to take advantage of some potential acquired growth that may present itself that could be strategic and accretive important for our growth plan. We want to continue to repurchase some shares opportunistically. And we may continue to very gradually pay down some debt. So I think we're going to continue kind of the way that we've been operating in the last year or two. I don't see a major change, but we certainly could allocate more towards share repurchase should the opportunity present itself.
Operator: The next question is from Brian Harbour from Morgan Stanley.
Hilary Lee: This is Hilary Lee on for Brian Harbour. Congrats on the quarter, guys. Just wondering, outside of the Middle East improving, do you guys see any other potential tailwinds for the consumer?
Christopher Pappas: We're really happy with what we're seeing at this point. I think a real possibility uptick right now is what we're hearing with the World Cup, right, being in the United States and a lot of our major markets. So we don't build these things in, but I think with -- I forget how many millions of people coming in for the cup in our major cities, I think it's going to be really good for our customers. So we think the consumer of our -- the restaurants and hotels that we supply, the spending, what we see is strong, and we have not heard of anything really changing. We think bookings are strong and our customers are optimistic.
So we like the way the year is -- besides the Middle East, we are really enjoying what we have set up to supply for the next X amount of years really lining up in our favor.
Hilary Lee: Got it. And kind of just a follow-up on that. Like have you guys ever seen or are you able to quantify any impact that you've seen from any other major events like the Olympics a couple of years ago?
James Leddy: We don't really quantify it. Obviously, when there are events, whether it's F1 or something like the World Cup or the Olympics or other types of events, we do see a temporary bump, but it's not something we model in for the long term.
Operator: The next question is from Todd Brooks from Benchmark Company.
Todd Brooks: Obviously, strong results in Q1 in the U.S. And Chris, you talked to the typical seasonal acceleration. Jim, you pointed to kind of normalizing maybe kind of 12% organic growth if you take out weather and CME. You talked about double digits in April. I know we're also going into a strong period here with graduations, Mother's Day, return of outdoor dining and then you just pointed out the World Cup. Are we still accelerating as we go into Q2? And Chris, when you're talking to clients, just what's their outlook on kind of the -- how the table is being set for them for the next couple of quarters here?
Christopher Pappas: Cautiously very cautiously optimistic, Todd. I mean the Middle East, obviously, was not in our plans because, I mean, the business is really strong. Nobody has a crystal ball, but we don't really see a change in behavior. I think that we've invested for more -- to take more market share and be the premier high-end partner for the world's greatest chefs. And there's been a shift, and it's I don't see that shift of consumers willing to give other things up, except for they're extremely affluent that nothing really is going to change their behavior as far as dining out and travel.
I just think it's -- the acceleration is, I think, more consumers are choosing to -- for the experience for the travel, for the dining out for those sports experiences versus other things in the past, maybe things they would have bought or spent more money on. So I don't see that changing. And I think our customers are benefiting for it. We see a consistent investment in more restaurants, more hotels opening, more parties, lots of catering and more people visiting the United States on the high end, obviously plays in our favor.
Todd Brooks: That's great. And then, Jim, just a question for you. And Peter was asking the question about the EBITDA margin expansion and the profitability of the business. How much of this now is kind of related to the existing facilities that you've stood up just putting more volume through those facilities versus how much is due to the investments that you've made around technology and process and people that you guys highlighted at the Investor Day. If you were attributing the gains that we're seeing in EBITDA margin, how would you kind of parse it between the 2?
Christopher Pappas: Goldilocks.
James Leddy: Todd, we don't necessarily put a dollar amount or percent of our accretion of either adjusted EBITDA dollars or margin to a particular bucket. But what I would just go back to kind of what Chris has talked about in his prepared remarks and also what we talked about earlier in the call, and that is all of these things coming together. I think the investment in training in our salespeople, especially in the nascent high-growth markets that we've put infrastructure in to give them capacity and folded in acquisitions.
And then you start off with a young maturing sales force and as they grow with the leadership team that we have regionally, very experienced leaders that have run distribution businesses, food distribution businesses themselves before joining us and know every area of the business from sales, operations to procurement to pricing, they benefit from that. And as Chris mentioned, just marrying technology with knowing our customers better, that together with the infrastructure investments and just the experience and growth of our teams that are managing pricing and procurement and operations, it's all coming together. It's all -- there's not one thing that we would point out that says this is driving our EBITDA margin higher.
So I would say that, and I'd ask Chris to add anything that he might want to add.
Christopher Pappas: Yes. I think, Todd, when I look back, I think it's what we -- it's a 15th year being public. I thought it would be easier at that point. But I think lessons learned is that to build something like Chefs' Warehouse, it just doesn't get built overnight. You got to have all the technology in the world. And of course, it really helps, but it's just so much more complicated. Like as you just said, it takes the buildings. It takes the maturity. It takes years to develop a team to win the Super Bowl. It's not put up overnight, even though you might have the talent, it just takes that long. So I think it's really Goldilocks.
If I wrote a book, it just takes -- it takes a lot longer every time we go on a new path to build a new territory, it always takes a lot longer to master a new category, it takes a lot longer. So I think what we're seeing, obviously, the consumer is -- our customer is able to spend for the better things in life, we sell good, better, best, right? So I think people are really appreciating the mastery of these great restaurants and their talented chefs that are putting the food together. And I think it's like an orchestra, right? It has to learn how to play together and just get better and better.
And I think the Chefs' Warehouse complete business, whether it's produce, whether it's groceries, whether it's dairy, protein, I think it's just getting better and better, and I think we're seeing the results.
Todd Brooks: Congrats to you and the whole team.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question is from Margaret-May Binshtok from Wolfe Research.
Margaret-May Binshtok: I just wanted to ask on the placement growth, the 6.2% you guys saw seems to be accelerating. I guess which lever is doing the most work here from your sales force and new hires or digital penetration?
Christopher Pappas: I think, again, it's all the levers that are contributing. So I think it's a little bit of everything, getting leverage on the new facilities, right? The more volume, more profitable volume we pump in, you get a bigger bottom line. The technology adding placements is giving us an uptick, growing into facilities in new territories. we're getting leverage. So it's a little bit from a lot of different parts of the business that is giving us that bigger bottom line at the end of the day.
Margaret-May Binshtok: Super helpful. And then I just wanted to ask on the M&A environment. Given what we were seeing with the macro and some volatility, has that changed valuations that you guys are seeing out there at all or the pipeline or sellers more motivated?
Christopher Pappas: The pipeline is frothy, but again, years ago, we had to do more M&A to get into the markets faster to build a national business and now an international business. So we're just -- we're not in need of a lot of M&A. So we're just very patient. And we've seen some multiples come down in some deals that have hit our table. But we think that at a certain point, we'll have some good M&A to add to what we're building, but we're just very, very patient at this point.
Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Chris Pappas for closing comments.
Christopher Pappas: We'd like to thank everybody who joined the call today and take time to learn a little bit more about Chefs' Warehouse, and we're really proud of the last quarter and what the team was able to accomplish. And we remain very optimistic about the future. And, hopefully, this conflict in the Middle East settles down. And we look forward to everybody joining our next earnings call. Thank you.
Operator: This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time.
